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Linux On 2008 MacBook

Dronecatcher said:
Wasn't crashing in Live mode - it would crash after installing to hdd - take 10 minutes to boot and then go silent with a black screen.
Managed to install version 4 and it booted without crashing but everything is impossibly slow and apps freeze - going to wipe the hdd and give one more try then try Lubuntu or go back to OSX.
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Well EOS works for @swamprock and it works fine off USB stick...just more fun and games....
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Oh yeah... I forgot to mention the S-video bug. Upon initial boot of the live cd and install, it’ll be super slow with drm_kms errors or something similar. You have to add a line to grub that fixes that.

This will fix it once installed and booted to the desktop:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/893817/boot-very-slow-because-of-drm-kms-helper-errors

After that, apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics and reboot. That last install will get rid of the weird, super-sensitive trackpad.

You shouldn’t have any more issues after that. That same bug infects all Ubuntu derivatives, btw.
 
swamprock said:
You have to backup the firmware from an actual Mac OS X installation (the file is "AppleUSBVideoSupport"; you can always download it somewhere by searching for it), then in your Linux installation, install isight-firmware-tools via apt. As it installs, it'll ask you where your firmware is. Point it at that file, it'll install the firmware, reboot, and your camera will work.
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Did this and it said firmware successfully extracted but camera not recognised - any ideas? Also are there any extra measures for fan control - they're much more active than in OSX?

EDIT: Camera issue appears to be a common new bug EOS are preparing an update for.
 
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Thanks for recommending EOS @swamprock - all looking good now....

EOS.jpg
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Did this and it said firmware successfully extracted but camera not recognised - any ideas? Also are there any extra measures for fan control - they're much more active than in OSX?

EDIT: Camera issue appears to be a common new bug EOS are preparing an update for.
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Just checked mine and you're right.... it doesn't work. I don't use my camera much so I wasn't aware that something broke along the way.
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Dronecatcher said:
Thanks for recommending EOS @swamprock - all looking good now....

View attachment 854334
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It's a nice, simple, and fast distro, and easily customizable with Elementary Tweaks. I also like the "pay what you want" curated app model that they promote, and the fact that they fix most issues very quickly. People calling it the "macOS of Linux" are spot on for the most part.
 
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Hi guys, sorry for necroposting.
I've an old white MacBook with 10.6.8 and without the possibility of booting from usb and in addition with a dead CD/DVD drive.
Is there any ability to install Linux or Windows on that monster?
Maybe a third partition with installation iso on it or something?
 
MacBookPro3,1 only Snow Leopard will run. I've tried Windows 8.1, 10, El Captain and a bunch of different Linux Distros. The laptop is old but it was never used, looks brand new. 4GB ram (upgraded) and installed a Intel SATA SSD 180GB. Memtest 086 works and no errors. The SSD is 100% good..... OMG.... as I am typing this out, the Ubuntu 18.04 just loaded up now.. Thank you so much for the info. It took this Mac roughly 20 minutes to load off the USB flash drive. Finally booted to the desktop on Ubuntu after errors and a black screen (took forever). Thanks, you people saved another laptop from getting scrapped!!
 
trent1ane said:
Hi guys, sorry for necroposting.
I've an old white MacBook with 10.6.8 and without the possibility of booting from usb and in addition with a dead CD/DVD drive.
Is there any ability to install Linux or Windows on that monster?
Maybe a third partition with installation iso on it or something?
Click to expand...
I would keep that laptop for parts, maybe find another one and make 1 out of 2. Why won't it boot off a USB?
 
eco-friendly polycarbonate MacBook early 2008 with upgraded SSD and 4Gb RAM running 13 operating systems on OSX Lion as a host machine, with faith towards year 2023...
 

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Dronecatcher said:
Thanks for recommending EOS @swamprock - all looking good now....

View attachment 854334
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After all this time: do you still think EOS is a good option for the Macbook 4,1 early 2008 2.4GHz C2D?

I just acquired one of these and I think I want to go Linux on it. I upgraded the memory to 3GB with what I found in my parts bins and ordered an another 2GB module and a new battery too and I will install some kind of SSD into it too.

BTW. Is it the same with these older models than the newer MBP's that if the battery is dead the processor does not run at full speed?

I have previously installed Manjaro to a 2010 MBA and it works nicely. Now I am thinking of my options with this machine. Any updated 2022 suggestions are welcome.
 
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ToniCH said:
BTW. Is it the same with these older models than the newer MBP's that if the battery is dead the processor does not run at full speed?
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Yes, the CPU will throttle itself to half of the actual clock speed IIRC. 2Ghz will become 1Ghz etc.

ToniCH said:
I have previously installed Manjaro to a 2010 MBA and it works nicely. Now I am thinking of my options with this machine. Any updated 2022 suggestions are welcome.
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Manjaro! I used the Netbook edition on an Atom laptop for a quite a while and loved it. Everything was great till one day when the installation developed problems and I couldn't correct it.

Did hibernation work properly for you with the 2010 MBA under Manjaro?
 
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TheShortTimer said:
Did hibernation work properly for you with the 2010 MBA under Manjaro?
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In fact I don't know. I don't think I've seen other than normal sleep. And it wakes up from that ok. When I am done with it I do a shutdown so I haven't left it for hours and its been powered from the wall when I use it. Maybe I should experiment and see. How to do it properly and verify if it works?

I've heard lots of good things about Pop Os, has anybody tried how (and if) it installs and runs in the MB 4,1?
 
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ToniCH said:
In fact I don't know. I don't think I've seen other than normal sleep. And it wakes up from that ok. When I am done with it I do a shutdown so I haven't left it for hours and its been powered from the wall when I use it. Maybe I should experiment and see. How to do it properly and verify if it works?
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Ok, I was curious because I tried Manjaro on my 2010 MBA and gave up due to a number of problems which included broken hibernation.

ToniCH said:
I've heard lots of good things about Pop Os, has anybody tried how (and if) it installs and runs in the MB 4,1?
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That's one distro that I'm ignorant of. If you have a go with installing it, please share your experiences. :)
 
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